Recently, surgery is performed using an endoscope operation system having a plurality of medical devices. In an endoscope operation system, an organization of a living body is removed using an abdomen insufflation unit for expanding a visceral cavity and a treating device etc. for treating an affected part, and hemostasis is performed using a high frequency cautery device, and these treatments can be performed while watching images captured by an endoscope.
The endoscope operation system includes a plurality of medical devices for an endoscope operation, and a system controller for controlling the medical devices, a display operation device, etc. Thus, since the endoscope operation system is configured by a plurality of devices, it is necessary to use a common communication protocol to enable communications among the devices to be performed. However, manufacturers of medical devices usually adopt different communication methods and/or communication protocols for their own medical devices. Therefore, a communication converter is used to convert the communication methods and/or communication protocols to enable communications to be performed between them.
The communication system refers to a system of communications based on the physical or electrical configuration of communications such as infrared communications, USB (universal serial bus) communications, RS-232C communications, controller area network (CAN), or Ethernet communications, etc. A difference in communication system refers to a difference in physical or electrical standards in various communications such as a difference between wireless communication and cable communication, a difference in shape of a connector, etc. (Therefore, the difference disables a physical or electrical connection to be performed). A communication protocol refers to a normally adopted communication protocol, that is, a logical connection, as compared with the physical or electrical connection in the above-mentioned communication system.
Generally, medical equipment is covered with a metal housing. The metal housing contains a substrate for operating the medical equipment. The substrate is fixed to the metal housing by metal fittings, and the metal housing is grounded in many cases. Thus, the noise occurring from the electronic components on the substrate can be prevented from being transmitted outside the housing, thereby reducing the influence of the noise to another equipment unit. In addition, the influence of the noise from other equipment units to the medical equipment can be minimized.